Eat smaller meals more often, right? Or are larger, less frequent meals the way to go? Here’s what science has to say.

Do what works best for your goals and lifestyle.

That said, I like to suggest most people shoot for 3 meals a day plus a workout drink when they train. I consider that setting up a “baseline”, and then you can tweak from there adding meals/snacks if needed or experimenting with intermittent fasting-type plans down the road.

Untill I started working with Amit Sapir I believed 2-3 meals a day was fine and maybe for some it is. However since I have bumped my meals to a minimum of 5-7 I have noticed a dramatic decrease in digestion issues (gas and acid reflux), much more energy as I dont feel like I need to fall asleep after every meal, and I noticed I have much less bloat to deal with.

Greg Nuckols wrote an article about this. Essentially you get a lot for a little effort and as you increase effort you eventually reach a limit where you put in very high effort for little returns - this is represented by an increasing exponential decay function. Greg gave examples of this model being applicable to training frequency, volume, eating frequency, etc. More can be better but questions to ask yourself are how much better for you and is the extra effort worth? For some it is, for some it isn’t.

[quote]Reed wrote:
Untill I started working with Amit Sapir I believed 2-3 meals a day was fine and maybe for some it is. However since I have bumped my meals to a minimum of 5-7 I have noticed a dramatic decrease in digestion issues (gas and acid reflux), much more energy as I dont feel like I need to fall asleep after every meal, and I noticed I have much less bloat to deal with. [/quote]

Digestive enzyme supps work really well for the bloat, gas, full rock in stomach feeling etc you get from crushing food. They were a digestive life saver for me.

I think one overlooked point is how many calories you are eating. Someone eating only 2500 calories in a day (maybe they’re on a diet or something), eating 6 meals a day is only 400 ish calories a meal. That’s a very small meal, and I wouldn’t fell all that full after eating what basically amounts to a 10 oz chicken breast and broccoli. However, if someones eating 4000 calories than 6 meals would be just under 700 calories. Easily a “full” meal.

Basically, I think it matters how many calories you eat in a day. And personal preference, time constraints, etc. In a perfect world, when I’m eating to gain weight 4 meals and a small pre-workout shake is my “ideal” but I only consume around 3000 calories. Due to time constraints it’s sometimes easier to just combine the last two meals in a day and really feel like I’m “splurging” with a 1300 calorie meal. Nice mentally.

I’ve been wondering the same. Currently feeling that three insulin responses per day may create a better overall hormone profile. But it’'s all theory and based on minimal understanding, so not worth much.

I think the only really good reason for more meals is if you are having trouble getting in as many calories as you want. At some point, if you are gaining weight and large and muscular with a really fast metabolism, 5 to 6000+ calories in 3 meals sucks.